Everyone has a view on the Chinese mobile games market.
And one significant trend has been the expansion of the most forward-looking Chinese companies into international markets.
Yet, as demonstrated by new research from ad network PapayaMobile, Chinese developers aren't targeting western markets.
China on the up
PapayaMobile's Q3 Android Advertising Survey is based on activity on its ad network, which has a lifetime reach of 290 million devices and is used by more than 7,000 developers, mainly in Asia.
It reveals that between March and September 2013, the total amount spent by Chinese mobile advertisers - including brand advertisers and app promotion - grew up 151 percent.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, given PapayaMobile's location, Chinese mobile advertisers were the largest country segment on its network with 35 percent of ad spend, compared to 26 percent for the US.
However, this is the first time China has overtaken the US.
Closer to home
Only 8 percent of Chinese mobile ad money was spent in the North American market, compared to 18 percent across Europe.
The biggest area was Asia (excluding China) with 32 percent market share. India (7 percent), Indonesia (5 percent), South Korea (3 percent) and Thailand (4 percent), were key territories.
The Middle East is another key market for Chinese mobile advertisers, with the tiny but lucrative Saudi Arabian mobile market accounting for 6.5 percent of total ad spend. This compares with 7.5 percent for the US.
"This year, Chinese developers with deep pockets have been scaling up their apps in parallel with China's newfound global influence on the app economy," said Si Shen, PapayaMobile's CEO.
"As Chinese developers increase their mobile ad spend to expand into emerging markets, developers with traffic from Southeast Asia and the Middle East - which have previously been undervalued - are suddenly earning more revenue from these regions.
"As China's influence continues to grow globally in 2014, expect more and more developers to monetize traffic from these emerging markets, which have until now been underestimated and undervalued."
You can see PapayaMobile's complete survey here, or its SlideShare as below.
